Addressing the elephant in the room

Securing Democrat voters the priority for Nancy Pelosi, Need DACA fix by year end

Securing Democrat voters the priority for Nancy Pelosi. The election of Ralph Northam drove home the importance of the illegal alien and convicted criminal vote to Nancy Pelosi. Pelosi is committed to securing more Democrat voters by year end.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Thursday that Democrats will insist on protecting “Dreamers” from deportation before year’s end.

Pelosi’s position highlights the ever-increasing odds of a showdown over immigration next month when Congress must extend funding for the government.

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President Trump has promised Senate Republicans that he won’t support an omnibus spending bill that includes protections for those enrolled in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which he rescinded in September. And Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) on Thursday suggested that Republicans want to kick the issue into next year.

But Democrats have insisted on such a fix next month, at the latest, and they’re increasingly threatening to withhold their support for a spending bill unless it includes a DACA fix — or Republicans find another legislative vehicle to move it this year.

The Democrats will have leverage in the spending fight, both because of the Senate filibuster and because House Republicans have typically struggled to win enough GOP support to pass budget bills on their own. Those dynamics lend the Democrats power to make certain demands, and DACA is quickly moving near the top of the list.

“I’ll have to see what the spending bill is,” Pelosi said Thursday during a press briefing. “But I fully intend that we will — we will not leave here without the DREAM Act passing with a DACA fix. Pelosi is committed to securing Democrat voters.

“I’ve made that very clear.”

Republicans have a mixed view on a DACA fix. Speaker Ryan says “I don’t think there’s really any need to have artificial deadlines within the one we already have.”

“Having said that, though, our members are having lots of conversations,” he added. “We have a working group on this issue. And that working group is now going to spread out and start talking to our broader conference.”

Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said Thursday that the negotiators are nearing a deal on a DACA package, which they’ll then shop around to the conference.

“I think we’re getting close to a product and at that point we’ll go into listening sessions,” McCaul told The Hill.

Either way it seems that securing Democrat voters even though they are illegal aliens is a priority for Nancy Pelosi.